Cow Playing with Yoga Ball

Farm Update for August 18th, 2020

by CowGetting Started with the Farm

Things are moving right along here on the farm!

 

Jasper got a little attention here recently. We had the farrier out to take a look at his hooves and he got a nice new pedicure. He was not impressed. We haltered and tied him to the barn.

Jasper Investigating the Camera
Jasper was curious to see what I was doing in his grass.

CJ was at his head while the farrier handled his feet. I stood by feeding Jasper apples to try and calm him down and distract him. I am not sure how often he has had this done in the past. He certainly was not comfortable with it.  He did behave well though. While he did not like anyone messing with his feet, no one was donkey-kicked in the face as I suspected would

happen. You could tell he was just trying to get away. I was impressed with the farrier’s complete lack of fear with Jasper. It was interesting to watch and he manhandled my donkey quite well. He would take hold of Jasper’s leg and would not let go of it until the job was done, even if it did cause him a few bloody knuckles. 

Overall, Jasper’s hooves just needed a little trimming. He did have a slight case of thrush on one hoof that we are treating with peroxide. We will continue the treatment and keep an eye on it. 

 

Cow Cow is doing well and getting bigger every day! I can tell he is lonely and wants to play so I got him a beach ball to play with. He absolutely loves it! I could not believe it! I have CJ go

Cow from the side
Cow Cow strikes a pose

in with me (just in case) and throw the ball around with him.  He pushes it around with his head, gets excited, and starts bucking all around. Admittedly, I normally run away at that point and then go back when he is calmer. It is so cute to watch him play and it makes my heart happy. 

We did set up a better system for delivering water to the pastures. We hooked up enough hoses to reach the pastures. This works much better than carrying multiple buckets. This sounds pretty simple but CJ was concerned that the water pressure would not be able to push the water that far and uphill. I think CJ just enjoys working hard. I however, really do not like carrying buckets, so I tested it out to see. Works like a charm and now is the go to method. 

I think CJ and I will be setting up an electric fence in the pasture to where we can get in there and do what we need to while still being separated from Cow Cow. He wants to play and even went to the extent of jumping up while CJ was cleaning out his water trough. Cow Cow had both front hooves up on CJ’s shoulders! Not cool, Cow cow! Bad cow. He is getting big enough to push even CJ around. CJ was able to swat him off and no harm done. However, if that had been me, he would have knocked me down and trampled me to death. This is not acceptable. 

Due to his loneliness and eagerness to play, we are discussing getting another cow for him. I am not sure how I feel about this. On one hand I know it would do Cow Cow so much good to have company and another animal to play with. On the other hand, this is more work, more feed, more issues, and I am just not sure we are ready to take that on. CJ is of the opinion that two cows would not make any more difference than one. He often reminds me of my “just do it” attitude. I do not think that he realizes how much that particular attitude has changed! I fear soon I will be the victim of a cow gang. We will discuss the issue further before we make a decision. While we have learned a lot, there is still more to learn and I want to do better than our first cow purchase experience. 

We have found another resource with a gentleman that plowed our driveway last year. He is also a farmer, and has stated that he could provide us with hay this winter for the cow and donkey. He also has a connection with a Jersey cow farmer and she is willing to come out to our farm. She is happy to give us advice on what type of hay is best for the cow this winter and any other tips that she can give us. Hopefully she can come out next week. I am excited to meet and learn from her! 

Chickens in Poultry Net
The Chickens are hunting for bugs.

The egg laying hens are doing well and back to laying eggs regularly now that the temperatures have calmed down. We did lose the one sick hen. We are still not sure what was wrong, but she continued to decline even though she was isolated from the others and had access to food and water. We are down to 5 hens now and the rooster. The rest of them seem to be healthy and doing well thankfully. 

 

We are gearing up for the new meat birds coming in September and already have customers placing orders! So exciting! So proud of CJ and his crazy idea of farming. When he sets his mind to do something, nothing can stop him! He is achieving his dream! I love experiencing this new adventure with him, even if most of it is spent with me running from the cow! 

Spring Flowers

Farm Update for August 2nd, 2020

by Uncategorized

 

First and foremost, Cow Cow is doing great! He has come so far from where he started! He is eating great, gaining weight, and enjoying the pasture. CJ even taught him how to drink his milk from the bucket instead of nursing with the nipple. This makes his milk feeding much faster, he slurps it up in no time! It is kind of funny watching CJ go in. If he has the milk bucket, Cow Cow will almost knock it out of his hands trying to get to it. CJ has to do a little dance and spin around, blocking Cow Cow before he can set it on the ground for him.

I have not been going inside the pasture because, and I cannot stress this enough, dying via cow does not appeal to me. However, my time has come, and I must overcome my fears. CJ has drill this weekend so it is up to me to care for all of the animals. I went in yesterday with CJ to see how Cow Cow reacted to me and he did fine. Of course, he has gotten used to CJ feeding him, so he mainly harassed him (which is fine by me). I went in to feed him his grain at lunch, but I took Lil CJ with me. He stays outside of the fence though. I do not know what I expect Lil CJ to do should Cow Cow come after me, but at least there will be someone there to hear me scream and alert someone of my demise. Lil CJ being outside the fence distracted Cow Cow long enough for me to sneak by like a ninja, dump the feed, and sneak back out. I had to go in again this evening, but he was further down in the pasture and could not see me. I opted to climb through the fence as it was closer to his feeding area and the sound of the gate opening would have alerted him to my presence. So, I climb in, tiptoe over to his shed, dump the feed, then run back to the fence as fast as I can and climb through trying not to fall or get hung up! I may have done a little ”Woohoo” upon my successful, unnoticed, escape. I can do this, even if I must do it ninja-style!

The egg laying chickens seemed to have taken a break in laying eggs. I think the heat is just getting to them. I can hardly blame them! I would not want to give birth daily in this heat either! CJ tried to get the hens to be fed purely on foraging alone, but this did not seem to go well for them. Even though they have a generous area to free range, it may not be enough to sustain them completely. We will continue to give them feed.

We do have a hen that is not feeling well. We are not sure what is wrong with her, only that she is weak. She can stand up but does not move much and when she does move, you can tell she is struggling. She also just falls out of the coop in the morning when coming out instead of going down the ramp or flying out. She can not get back up in the evening. We moved and isolated her in a pen in the barn for a few days with her own food and water close to her. She improved so we put her back in with the other hens. She quickly became weak again. I am thinking that because the other chickens can move faster, they are eating all the food and she is not getting enough. So, we moved her back to the barn. She seems to be doing well there, so we will keep an eye on her for a bit longer and see how she does.

We have two new additions to the farm! A couple of bunnies and one guinea pig for Lil CJ. We had great success with using bunny droppings at the old house to fertilize our garden, so we plan to do the same here on the farm. Lil CJ has wanted a guinea pig since he was little. We found one for free and can’t exactly use the excuse of no room now that we have the farm! He has a nice cage in Lil CJ’s room and Lil CJ has been taking good care of him.

Jasper the donkey seems to have a hurt leg (or hoof). He was limping the other day and I could see nothing visibly wrong. We called a farrier and made an appointment to have him come look at his hooves and deliver any care necessary since we are not experienced in that area. I also really do not want to get donkey-kicked in the face, so I will leave that to the professionals to handle! He does seem to be walking better now so he may have just sprained his leg or had a rock stuck in his hoof that eventually came loose. We will keep an eye on him until the farrier can arrive on Monday.

Things are moving right along here on the farm!

 

Cow looking at camera

Cow Update June 19th, 2020

by CowGetting Started with the Farm

Happy Friday!

Cow Cow is still improving and doing great! We almost had an adventure here today, but thanks to my quick thinking (ok, maybe more like begging God to have mercy), the crisis was averted!

Calf from side
My ribs are no longer showing 🙂

Today brought a slight issue with me being able to check on Cow Cow while also not going into the pasture. Mother Nature decided to bring the rain. It was bound to happen. Typically, I keep his feed bowl right by the fence so I can keep track of how much he is eating and refill easily. I can not do this if it is raining. His food cannot be out in the rain. CJ moved his food bowl into the shelter. This means I must go in there to check on it.

Since his recovery, Cow Cow has much more energy, and for some reason only acts up when I am in the pasture. He also will not listen to me if I try to get him to stop acting up. Basically, he is a toddler. He acts like a little crazy, rambunctious, little demon for Mom, but then acts all super sweet for everyone else. I do not think he is being aggressive. I honestly think that he is trying to play. I am the one who cuddled him, gave him love, and cares for him. Now that he has energy, he just wants me to play with him. While I would love to play with him, I cannot allow him to play in that rambunctious manner. When he is grown, this could be very dangerous. Since (like a normal toddler), he pushes the boundaries, and does not listen very well, I think that it is best that I stay out of the pasture until I can get him to respect me and my personal space. Also, I do not want to die via cow.

So, I came up with a plan. I filled his milk bucket with water and just enough milk replacer to give it flavor but not too much that it would cause any harm through over-feeding. I had

Fencing in need of repair
The gaps in this fence are enough for a calf to fit through

Alayna feed him over the fence as normal, while I ran in the pasture and refilled his food. This worked well, I was able to get in, do my thing, and get out. Once out of the pasture I took over holding the milk bucket for Alayna and she walked back to the house. Cow Cow finished, I took the bucket away, and started walking away. Cow Cow decided to test his boundaries at this point and was pushing THROUGH the fence. To get a better picture of this moment that sent panic throughout me: the fence was in the active process of giving birth to the cow and he was about to be outside of the pasture and running free in the wilderness.

There are many things that went through my mind in this moment. Some I will not type here, because, well… CJ would frown upon it. But the general idea, is that I was about to have a rambunctious cow on the loose. I was going to have to chase this thing all over. I do not know how to catch cows. I do not know how to catch them with a leash, or a rope, much less my bare hands! I panicked for a moment. He had most of his upper body through the fence and I saw the realization on his face. There was that moment where it went from “I am going to try this” to “Hey, this is actually working, I can do this”. He had but take a step and he would be free.

My heart dropped and my mind sent up a prayer, an oh crap, and a here we go, all at once. I puffed up my chest, bent my arms inward (kind of like a body builder flexing), jerked forward in the most threatening manner I possess, stomped, and bellowed in the most aggressive, deep voice that I could muster:  “Get back, Back, don’t you even dare, don’t do it, back, go on, GET BACK IN THAT FENCE!”

I must have sounded somewhat threatening, because Alayna came out yelling “What is going on, are you ok?”. Cow Cow stopped and had a look on his face that said, “What the heck was that”. I continued my jerking and bellowing for him to get back, and thankfully it worked! He started to slowly back up. Even if he did look at me like I had gone bonkers. I do not care, it worked!

Lord, have mercy. I thought I was going to have to chase a cow! I can, not, even! However, the crisis was averted, and all was well in the end. I will have to use my newfound threatening skills when I am inside the pasture to see if that works on getting him to respect me. Of course, only if CJ is in there with me, should he not find me threatening enough. HA!

Fixing that fence, has now moved to the highest priority. It shall be done. We will also have to come up with a better way to handle feeding during rainy weather.

As you can see, he has his energy back! He is eating great! He is getting more used to eating the dry feed and eating the amount that he should be eating. He has gained a little weight, I think.  I did buy a cattle weight tape so we (I mean CJ) can get an idea of how much he weighs, and we can track how much he is gaining each week. I believe he needs to be gaining at least 2.5lbs/week. He may be a little slower at first due to him trying to catch up to a healthy weight, but we will get him there!